Raising Students' Standardized Test Scores

I get it! In the old days, teachers made their own tests; if students failed then it was because the student didn't try hard enough. Today, tests are a measure of teacher performance and, in some cases, a basis for a raise.

Since I'm not willing to fight the system by going to the state capitol and speaking in front of the school board, I'm going to focus on what goes on in my classroom. To those who are fighting the good fight, I applaud you. But high test scores gave me the only decent raise I ever received in my 13 years of public school education. This is how I do it.

First, find out what is on the test. If it's a state standardized test, google the name of the test and the word released and obtain all the released exams. In Texas, google "released starr eoc." In New York, google "released NY regents exam." Feel free to be more specific with grade and subject. For AP courses, you will need to access them on the College Board website after you log in as an instructor. Sadly, you can find some older released AP exams online. Is there a "blueprint" of the test, meaning a list of what topics will be covered on the test? If so, print it out! My biggest challenge in teaching AP Psychology has been figuring out what has generally been tested and what has not. Once you get a firm grasp, you can focus your instruction on those things.

Focus your lessons on what is on the test. This seems to be a no-brainer but it deserves emphasis here. If you decide to teach something that is not on the test, make sure it is interesting and/or valuable. For example, in my history classes I like to spend a few days teaching about the Kennedy assassination. I know it will not be on the test but I know my students are interested. A good example of this is World War II. Teachers and students love WWII. However, there is a difference between a World History class and a US History class in what to emphasize. Rosie the Riveter will probably not be on a World History test. Teach what you want, but have students take notes only over what is on the standardized test. Make sure your in-class exam has questions that match what's on your standardized test.

Know your students! After 4 or 6 weeks, give a well-written assessment that matches the difficulty of the standardized test you are preparing for. Take those student scores and do something with them. One of the most effective moves is to call each student up to your desk and talk to them about it. In a Title I school, many students will take a test, fail it, and put it out of sight and out of mind. Their parents will never hear of this test. You, the teacher, must call the student up to your desk and look directly at them and ask them, "Hey! You got a 47 on this test. What happened? [insert awkward pause here] Did you try? Or did you just blow it off?" As a teacher, this is where your people skills come in handy. At minimum, you need to instill the idea that the next time they take a test, they will need to try harder so they don't have to go up to the teacher's desk and have an awkward conversation. Ideally, you could go over the test with them and figure out if there is a pattern regarding which questions they missed. If they did well but missed the last third of the test, that probably means they got lazy and just bubbled in random answers. Ask them directly if that is what they did. If they admit to getting lazy at the end, then directly ask them, "Could you please not do that? It makes me look bad." I can hear your groans as you read this, but it works with the students that I teach. They won't do it for themselves, they won't do it for their parents, but they will do it for me!

After the second major test, the failure rate generally drops. Then I can focus on students who really need the help. At this point, I'll take a cue from homeschooling and work with the students individually or small groups. I try to assess whether the students did not know the material or was it the wording of the questions. This is a big deal since phrases like "the Silk Road facilitated the spread of Buddhism" can throw a LEP student. What does "facilitate" mean? How about the answer choice "Freud's theories were not empirical"? Words like empirical and facilitate can be a challenge to all students, especially LEP students.

Adjust your seating chart. I recommend you place your low-scoring students close to you. However, many teachers like to pair their low scoring students with their high scoring students. That's up to you. I don't like paring because students will just copy off each other. However, on the next test, if your approach doesn't work, try something else. Making adjustments based on test scores is what data-driven instruction is all about! It's something we teachers have always done before we named it something. If you don't make any adjustments to your seating chart, at least write, in pencil, their test grade next to their name. You need to call on these students more. You need to keep these students off their phones.

Notice, I haven't mentioned tutoring. If you can get them to come, then great! Many teachers have morning PLCs and afternoon coaching. Many students have to catch a bus or go to work. Some students have their own kids they need to go take care of.

Finally, don't forget good instruction! In short, good instruction involves enthusiasm, visuals, gamification (Kahoot and Quizizz), and repetition.

Dealing With Your Most "Challenging" Students

Let's be clear: Having enthusiastic, bell-to-bell instruction will reduce discipline problems in a major way. But what if you haven't achieved that and you have a couple of students in each class that refuse to do anything? You need all the advice you can get to deal with these students. I'll do what I can here:

Let's start with some ways to keep the entire class on task: First, you need to walk around the room. If you sit at your desk or your computer, you will have 5 or more students not doing anything. Many of them will eventually copy off of someone else. Walk around!

Second, instead of griping, try a positive approach. Walk over to them and ask them if they need help. Address them individually, not as a group. (This is why you need a seating chart and to know their names!) Hector, do you need help? Many times they will say no and start working. Sometimes they will take you up on your offer and ask for help. Do not expect students to ask for help if they need it. Luckily, most of the time, they are just spacing out and just need a little encouragement to get to work. Be persistent! My students know that when I ask them if they need help that I have a double meaning. I'm genuinely wanting to help them if they want it; I'm telling them to get their rear in gear!

Third, there is the therapeutic approach. Subtly call them in the hall and ask them what's going on. Tell them that you've already asked them if they needed help several times yet they still aren't getting their work done. They might tell you that they are working nights or something. This approach might make you seem more human and they might respond. But in the end, it doesn't matter what is going on. They HAVE TO DO THEIR WORK!

Fourth, call home. this won't take up too much time since most of their numbers are disconnected or incorrect. You might ask them for their parent's phone number. Tell them that you have already tried to talk to them like an adult and it didn't work so you will go to their parents. If they are athletic, tell their coach.

There is one more optional step before getting the principals involved. I call it the beating your chest approach. Different students respond differently to this approach, but sometimes you just gotta yell and scream like an animal establishing dominance. It may not work with that one student, but in many cases, that one student is a leader of a pack and that pack will stop working if their leader does. You are the leader of the pack, not him.

If you do get the principal involved, remember that they will talk to them and possibly their parents. But other than that, the only thing they can do is suspend them in school or out of school. They aren't going to learn that way, but at least you made an important statement to the rest of the class.

Again, let's try not to get to these last 2 steps. Let's try to be fun and as positive as we can while we are teaching these kids. Unfortunately, we have to be a bad guy on occasion to achieve this positive environment in the long run.

All of the above only deals with students who refuse to work. If they are disruptive, meaning they shout or throw things or cuss you out, then you have to skip several steps. You might have to call someone to remove them from your room immediately. Do not let anything or anyone stop the learning in your classroom.

Youtube is the TEACHING GOD!!!!

Most of you might get on youtube to watch videos of dogs chasing their tails or bootleg copies of the Simpsons, but did you know that you can use it to be a better teacher? You can find a short videos on almost any subject. Let me demonstrate: Let's start with history, the easiest. Now, some of you are saying, "I already show war movies and such. I have no use for youtube." Okay, fine. but what multi-million dollar Hollywood movie do you have about the Panama Canal? Or the entire Cold War? Check this funny, short video on the Cold War. Imagine this as a preview or a review for 11th graders.





I would not want to teach Psychology without youtube! I can teach students about any type of mental disorder using a 3 minute video. Teaching narcolepsy is easy because youtube is full of videos of narcoleptic cats, goats and even a narcoleptic tree cutter (not really appropriate for the classroom). Many of the videos are designed for the classroom;many are video projects that students put together for their AP Psychology class. Most of them are funny. There are many clips from documentaries I can use rather than getting the DVD on interlibrary loan and waiting, etc. Here is a video that taught me a lot about the brain:



Math: As far as I know, good math teaching doesn't use a lot of videos, but students should use it if they need a bit of extra help. A student asked me for help factoring trinomials and I typed that into youtube's search feature and found a few professors and teachers showing how to do it. Here is a funny video for math students when they need a good laugh:



Sciences: Simply just type in a vocabulary term. Try photosynthesis, Jupiter, balancing chemical equations, atomic structure, dna, scientific method, cell structure, coke mentos, funny scientific experiments. Here is a 10 min video about the scientific method. There is also one that uses Monty Python to explain the scientific method.



English: Reading and analyzing literature doesn't always lend itself to film watching, but I did pick an author at random, Sandra Cisneros, and typed her name and found a chapter acted out (by students, I think). This illustrates how short youtube videos are.



My main point is youtube videos are short, effective, funny and efficient use of class time. To find them you simply type in key vocabulary terms into the search feature and start choosing from many options.

If you can't access youtube at school, go to http://www.real.com/ and download Realplayer on your home computer. It will save youtube videos for you to save to your USB drive. You will not need realplayer installed on the computer at school for this strategy to work. You can download Adobe Media Player. That will play the videos you save off youtube. Again, you save them using Real Player at home. You may have to play them at school using Adobe Media Player (because your district may not block Adobe's website like it blocks Real Player. Using the same laptop at home and school is ideal.

Transferring the videos can be tricky the first time. Go to the folder where Realplayer saves your videos. Go to your Start menu and click on search. Search the term Realplayer downloads. There you will find the folder where realplayer saves your videos. They are flash videos so they will have the file extension .flv Select the videos that you want to save to your USB flash drive, plug in your flash drive, right click the videos and hover your mouse where it says send to, then select your removable disk.

Another cell phone tip

When you see a student with a cell phone, tell the class, "I need everybody to put up their cell phones." The benefit of this approach is there may be someone in the room who you didn't see with a phone and they will think that they are busted and will put it up. That's like a freebie in teacher terms!

Some of you may say, "Why not take the phone up?" That approach might work well for you. In a rough school, you have to ask yourself what are you going to do when the person refuses to give you the phone. What are you going to do when s/he refuses to go to the office? What are you going to do when s/he slips the phone to another student on the way to the office and claims that s/he didn't ever have a phone? Whatever your response is to those situations, it will take away class time. And that investment in time might be worthwhile in the long run.

You could take up the phone and keep it until the end of class. I don't because I might lose it. If you are a female teacher, you could simply put it in your purse. You could do what a friend of mine did. He took the student's phone and texted the student's girlfriend saying I don't want to see you no more. Now that's teacher's revenge! Ha Ha!

Seating arrangement

I guess I've bought in to this No Child Left Behind idea because I'm always paying attention to my worst students with my method for seating students. After a couple of weeks, I give a fair test to my students. I then arrange the seating chart based on their scores. I know all the research says to place your worst students next to your best students so all that knowledge will somehow magically rub off on the bad students. What the Harvard researchers don't get is the lower students will cheat off the good students and trick YOU into thinking they don't need help. I put my best students in the back row; I put my worst students where I can keep an eye on them. One benefit is I can stand in the middle of the classroom facing front with my best students at my back. I don't need to watch them as much. My lower students are always within arm's reach in case I need to tap on their desk to wake them up or genuinely ask them if they need help. If my low students want to copy off of somebody, they'll have to copy off of another student who needs help or actually try to do the work. This seating arrangement allows me to profile before even getting to know my students. On week 4, I might not know my students' personalities, but I do know how they did on that last test I gave them. Certainly, they can move if they do well on the next test. Be careful not to make it the dummy area. I've seen a teacher do that in a rough school with some success (half the class could eat and drink; the other half couldn't)

Managing off task behavior.

No technique works for all students all the time, but that's no reason not to share a few tips. One thing to remember is we are all human. Personally, I break the rules on occasion because I don't think anyone is paying attention. So let's say I'm a few minutes late every day. Nobody says anything so I continue to be late. Then my Principal mentions it. I feel guilty and start being on time. I simply needed that direction because being late was easier than following a rule that I thought nobody was paying attention to. Students are the same, as are teachers in professional development. We all space out from time to time. So how can we as teachers correct this behavior without stopping the flow of class?

You must dedicate yourself to not stop the flow of class. Here are some tips:
1. In a traditional teacher-centered classroom situation (like mine is often), I will continue to talk but I will stare at the offending student who is spacing out. She will get the message and get on task. No class time or pride is lost. Not one second was wasted.
2. Incorporate their name, or their offense, into random parts of the lecture. "The Romans invented a lot of things. CELL PHONES weren't one of them. Right, Carlos? Yeah. [Class giggles]
3. Walk around the room. Your physical proximity tell their heart to give a shot of adrenaline into their bloodstream. Remember how you felt when your teacher came nearby? It's the same. If a student is off task, I might just tap on their desk. They'll get the picture. There is no need to make a scene.
4. Give dirty looks without stopping.
5. If you see one cell phone, address the entire class, "I need everyone to put up their cell phones." Benefits of that approach include student dignity and the real possibility that there is another cell phone being used that you don't see. That unknown student might think you are onto her and will put it up. Free points for you!

What if the subtle approach doesn't work? Tell the students, "Hey guys, if I look at you funny when you are doing something you are not supposed to be doing, please just stop doing it. Don't make me stop class to say, "Maria, put your phone up." You don't want me to sit around and gripe all day do you?" Kids appreciate learning about the material more than hearing you gripe.

Your tone of voice is important.

I observed a teacher yesterday. He was in a pretty unfortunate situation. He was an art teacher subbing for a vacancy in the Spanish department. He did what any teacher who is not trained would do: he got out the books and had an out-loud reading session. Now, imagine you are a student who got placed in a Spanish class. You already speak bad Spanish and now you are informed that you don't have a Spanish teacher. A student in that situation needs leadership and reassurance that his/her time won't be wasted. Some of that comes from confidence. A lot of it comes from the tone of the teacher's voice. You've been a student. You know what it's like to have a monotone teacher. Or even worse, a monotone teacher that does not speak loudly!

I try to sympathize with my students while keeping in mind the psychology of varied inputs into the brain. I don't just say good morning to my students. I'm more like Robin Williams from Good Morning Vietnam. Goooood Mooorrrnnning Class! These kids need more sleep than adults and usually get less. Many can't make it to Starbucks or go by the coffee machine in the mornings. The least you can do is wake them up! On Monday's I'm practically screaming at my students! So let's all agree to not be like the "Bueller? Bueller?" dude from the popular Matthew Broderick flick.

All sounds are important. If I were the teaching god, I would not want to walk by a quiet classroom unless they are reading or being punished. If you have your own room, I suggest you play loud, obnoxious music for them to bang their heads to until the tardy bell rings. Strong music tells the brain to produce adrenaline in the body. It has the same effect on the brain as doing push ups before class. It also tells your brain to produce endorphins (happy hormones!). Loud music also has the benefit of preventing too many in-depth conversations getting started before the bell. One major drawback to this approach is they disrupt bell ringers. I don't do bell ringers, but I have no problem with them.

Confidence

Half of good teaching strategies is thinking of your good teachers and your bad teachers and learning from them. Of course, we all hear about teachers who lament, "Why should I try to be a fun, interesting teacher? My teachers didn't!" I could dedicate an entire blog griping about certain, older generation teachers that stopped trying years ago, but I'm here to help YOU in a positive way.

Having confidence is important for a teacher, especially in rough schools. Students are like lions and dogs. They smell fear. Imagine the many times you went to some professional development class and the teacher spoke in a self-effacing manner and a quiet, non-confident voice. He/she said on many occasions, "Uh" and "Um kay." (Yes. That was a South Park reference.) It's difficult to learn in that environment. Remember the movie Stand and Deliver? One of my favorite lines from that movie was Escalante's line, "You wanna know why? Because I'm the best [teacher]." Most kids love a self confident teacher! The worst kids require it. In my first high school, I had to on many occasions pretend that I would fight a student right there. It was very much like like 2 gorillas beating their chest or 2 birds ruffling their feathers.

Welcome to my high school teaching advice blog.

I love to teach. I love teaching students and I love to teach other teachers what I know about teaching. My goal in this blog is to write down all my ideas and get criticism now before I try to publish them someday. I'm all heart, little research. I don't trust Harvard researchers because they've never had to call a parent or have a student to tell them to go &*%@ themselves.

About me: I grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood when parents still let their kids go outside. I'm 35, just old enough to graduate without taking any computer classes but young enough to have grown up on video games.

My first teaching job was at a jail. I was 24 teaching a life skills class to inmates who have had more life experiences than I have. However, I went in there every day with the necessary confidence because I was smart enough to know that their life experiences are what got them in jail in the first place. I learned quickly not to be afraid of adults. Adults need leadership and guidance just like everybody. I spent 4 years teaching female inmates the math and writing skills they needed to get their GED and hopefully not return to jail.

My second job was at tough inner city school. I learned many things teaching in 2 rough situations: 1. You have to believe that your thugs are worth teaching. If you don't believe that your job is important, then you won't have the intrinsic motivation to get you through the rough spots of the day. 2. You have to teach to the heart. City kids do things voluntarily or not at all! Luckily for you, these kids have an intrinsic desire for learning. You just have to find a way to tap that.